" And the struggle of African-American women and all women continues today. "Despite the indisputable gains over the years, women are still being raped, trafficked, violated and discriminated against -- not just in the rest of the world, but here in the United States (Valenti 2010)
The imagery established the mood and tone of the story, especially in relation to Elisa. At the beginning of the story, we read that the valley was covered with a "grey-flannel fog" (1326) with mountains surrounding it as if it were a "closed pot" (Steinbeck 1326)
. And the darkness of the movies, which had blinded then to the other darkness" (Baldwin 23)
The music is cathartic for Sonny and, as a result, becomes necessary for his survival. It is worth nothing that this catharsis extends to the narrator as well in that he, too, experiences "relief from the grief he has felt for the deaths of his parents, and more recently, that of his daughter, Gracie" (Champion)
Here we see that darkness is like a disease the boys are born with and something from which they must fight to be to rid. Donald Murray agrees with the powerful symbol of darkness in the story, asserting that there is "no escape from the darkness for Sonny and his family" (Murray 354)
John Reilly agrees with the significance of music in the story, noting that it becomes the basis of the brothers' relationship. He notes, "the unique quality of the Blues is its combination of personal and social significance in a lyric encounter with history" (Reilly 56)
James Tackach notes, "The narrator's daughter's name is, of course, highly symbolic. When the narrator loses his daughter Grace, he simultaneously identifies with the pain and darkness in Sonny's life and realizes his own loss of grace, resulting from the broken promise that he made to his mother the last time he saw her" (Tackach 113)
In 1993 Israeli archaeologists discovered a fragment in a dig in the Israeli town of Dan. Relatively small and insignificant in appearance, the fragment is described as a "stele," or an inscribed memorial or monument to an event or person (Biran, Naveh, 1993)
(McCall, 1999). However, even more interesting than David's use as a kind of Biblical "precedent setter" is his most pivotal role with regard to Christianity and the New Testament -- and that is David as prophet (Corbett, 2003)
Indeed, the reader notes that Christ used the actions of the pre-descent David as justification for his own (Luke 6:1-5) concerning the eating of wheat from the fields on the Sabbath. (McCall, 1999)
Moreover, the Book of Esther is the only book of the Hebrew Bible that does not include the word God, says Gartner, and compares this to the absence of the word adultery in the story, for which the letter A stands (Gartner pp). Others point out that neither Hester nor Arthur acknowledge the act of adultery, and in fact, the sexual relationship between the two is "so vaguely rendered that only the existence of Pearl as a consequence of it makes it credible" (Donoghue pp)
Hawthorn uses the story to point out that witchcraft ended the Puritan world, "its logic of evidence could not stand the Devil's own test of faith" (Modugno pp). Matthew Gartner links references in the "Scarlet Letter" to the biblical character of Esther, and that even the name, Hester, is a reference to Esther (Gartner pp)
Hawthorne gives hints of what is likely to come when Brown remarks that "There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree," and later cries "With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil" (Hawthorn pp). Joseph Modugno writes that Hawthorne probes the psychology of the witchcraft frenzy era in order to offer "insights into the moral complexity of human nature" (Modugno pp)
While the "Scarlet Letter" represents the story of Adam and Eve and the original sin resulting in banishment from the community of God, "Young Goodman Brown" represents the hysteria of the witch trials. Hawthorne had a connection to the infamous trials, as he writes in the introduction to the "Scarlet Letter," his ancestor, John Hawthorne had presided over the Salem trials of 1692, thus linking him through bloodline with the persecution of the "supposedly demonic forces" (Maus pp)
Others point out that neither Hester nor Arthur acknowledge the act of adultery, and in fact, the sexual relationship between the two is "so vaguely rendered that only the existence of Pearl as a consequence of it makes it credible" (Donoghue pp). The influence of Puritan religion and culture is a common theme in Hawthorne's work and in "Young Goodman Brown," he examines and provides a commentary on not only the Salem of his own time but his ancestors' Salem as well (McCabe pp)
Perhaps Hawthorne is pointing out that the "truth conveyed in the dream, that faith may betray us, is also a truth of waking experience" (Gregory pp). Hawthorne references his ancestors when the devil tells Brown that "I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly" (Shoemaker pp)
Just as the men who condemned and executed the witches of Salem, Brown is confused and searching and is unable to see whether his experience is real or a dream (McCabe pp). Perhaps Hawthorne is pointing out that the "truth conveyed in the dream, that faith may betray us, is also a truth of waking experience" (Gregory pp)
The story begins with an image of fog and winter, which becomes a central symbol of the emptiness and the obscurity that Elisa Allen feels psychologically. This refers to the, "The high grey-flannel fog of winter" (DiYanni 459)
Clearly, Emerson's emblematic "things" can be found in almost every fictional/poetical example written during the "American Renaissance," particularly in the novels and short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. As Herman Melville, author of the proverbial American classic Moby Dick, declares, Hawthorne's use of emblematic symbols, especially in the short story "Young Goodman Brown" and in his novel the Scarlet Letter, derives their force from his "appeals to that Calvinistic sense of Innate Depravity and Original Sin" which "no deeply-thinking mind is always and wholly free" (Bell, 25)
" These "things" are generally natural objects or events utilized by the writer to "suggest, mirror or symbolize inner mental events." In essence, Emerson views the entire world as emblematic, due to the idea that "the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind" (Richardson, 112)